A Series of Unfortunately Timed Showers
by quicksilversquared
Summary: Pretending that he was in the shower was bound to catch up with Adrien eventually. (aka Why Adrien Will Never Shower Again)(minor nudity and some language, nothing explicit) (Previously titled The Shower Scene: Take 3/Shower Scene 3.0)
1. The Shower Scene: Take 3

_A/N: So, I lied. This will be written in the same style as Sleepy Cuddles and Finding Out- connected one-shots. I have parts one and two complete and hope to also write a third part, though that may change.  
_

 _The previous title of this entire work used to be The Shower Scene Part 3/Shower Scene 3.0, for those of you who knew it by that name and were confused by the change.  
_

* * *

Gabriel Agreste had apparently decided to start off his day with a bit of yelling at a pyrotechnics technician (something had apparently gone wrong with the pyrotechnics at a fashion show; what exactly happened, Ladybug had no idea and did not particularly care). The Pyromaniac had then decided to go the route of exacting revenge on Mr. Agreste by blowing his home sky-high.

Mr. Agreste was out of danger, Ladybug knew that much. Nathalie had told her that Mr. Agreste was at his office and all of the staff members had evacuated the house as soon as they heard the news, but Adrien was still inside.

"I did call through his door, so maybe he left out his windows?" Nathalie suggested hopefully. She sent a worried look down the street, where the explosive, thundering footsteps of the Pyromaniac could be heard getting closer. "You can get him away, right? Thanks!" With that, she jumped in the car and it screamed away down the street. Clearly the Agreste staff had a lot of self-preservation, or maybe they just trusted Ladybug to get Adrien to safety.

Ladybug took a deep breath before swinging around to Adrien's side of the house. Her eyes skimmed the windows on the side of the house that she knew his room was on. All of them were closed.

All except one. A smaller window off to the side of all the other ones was open and Ladybug aimed for it, figuring that it would at least put her pretty close to Adrien's room so she wouldn't get lost in the large house. She took a running leap off of the mansion's surrounding wall, clearing the distance easily and grabbing hold of the top of the window frame to flip herself neatly into the room.

She recognized where she was right away, of course. It was Adrien's bathroom. And, like the other two times she had seen Adrien's bathroom, it was occupied.

Unlike the other two times, Ladybug had come in through a different entrance and had managed to land squarely in the shower area of the room.

Marinette had dealt with the first two "shower encounters" just fine, if by _just fine_ you meant that she panicked a bit at the time, she couldn't look Adrien in the eye for several days after each event, and had a couple meltdowns in front of Tikki until the kwami reminded her that she had only seen Adrien's head, not even his bare shoulders. But this? _This_ was significantly more than just Adrien's head.

She'd never be able to look Adrien in the face again. She might as well just pack up and go live in the remotest part of Canada, because she had definitely fucked up this time. Adrien would probably never want to speak to her again, never mind that it was _Ladybug_ that had barged into his shower, not Marinette.

In her defense, who the hell had a window (with a balcony) in their bathroom anyway? And even better question, why on earth would Adrien keep that window open? Surely his fancy bathroom would have an equally fancy ventilation system.

She had landed barely two meters away from a sopping wet and utterly naked Adrien Agreste. His head shot up as she landed with a light thud and for several long seconds they just stared at each other, eyes impossibly wide. This Adrien let out a surprised shriek, jumping backwards and trying to cover certain parts of his anatomy with his bottle of shampoo as he stumbled away. The water rushing down on him sent his bangs into his face (wow, his hair was really long when it wasn't brushed to the side), completely covering Adrien's face. It still wasn't quite enough to completely hide his blush, though, especially when the red flush traveled from his face, down his neck, and started spreading down his chest. Ladybug's eyes tracked it for a couple seconds before she stopped herself.

"W-what are you doing here?" Adrien squawked, finding his voice first. He didn't move his hands at all. "I- I mean, it's nice to see you and all, but, uh, now's not the best time!"

Ladybug swallowed, willing her eyes not to flick downward again. They did anyway. Adrien had a _really_ nice body. She wrenched her gaze back up to Adrien's face and tried to remember how to speak properly. She knew how to speak, she knew it. Finally she managed to find her words.

"There's a, uh, akuma. Outside. It's trying to blow your house up because it's ticked at your dad but he's not here. We kinda need to leave, like, now."

Adrien swallowed hard. Ladybug's eyes traced his throat as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down. "Oh. Um. Okay, but I need to get dressed really fast first."

"Of course!" Ladybug finally managed to spring into action, grabbing a fluffy white towel off the stack and turning off the shower before shoving the towel at Adrien's stomach, squeezing her eyes closed so she wouldn't see anything that she shouldn't be seeing.

* * *

Adrien's day had started normally. It was a weekend, so he got to sleep in until eight before getting up, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and eating breakfast. He did an hour of homework before going to his fencing practice. Two hours later he returned home, even sweatier than he usually was after fencing. The class had been intense, and the temperature was warmer than he was used to as spring weather gave way to summer.

Once Adrien got home, he wasted no time in shedding his damp clothes and hopping in the shower- after giving Plagg some cheese, of course. He showered quickly, scrubbing the sweat off and washing his hair. Adrien had only just rinsed the conditioner out of his hair when Ladybug landed in his bathroom with a light thud.

Adrien was fairly certain that he had never been more mortified in his life. He was standing in front of Ladybug, his crime-fighting partner and love of his life, without a single scrap of clothing on. Her eyes were almost impossibly wide as she stared at him. When Adrien finally came to his senses and _holy hell this is actually real it is panic time,_ he jumped backwards and scrabbled for something, _anything_ , to cover himself with. The stream of water washed his hair back over his eyes just as he grabbed his conditioner and covered himself with it.

At least he didn't have to look at Ladybug when his hair was like this. Maybe he could pretend that it was just a dream, abet a very, _very_ awkward dream.

(Normally when he dreamed about Ladybug, either he was wearing more clothes or she was wearing fewer and under _very_ different circumstances, but that was neither here nor there.)

"W-what are you doing here?" Adrien managed, hoping that everything important was covered. This was _mortifying_. "I- I mean, it's nice to see you and all, but, uh, now's not the best time!"

Ladybug stammered out an answer, and Adrien winced. _Akuma_. Of course. Adrien found himself cursing his dad just a little bit. No doubt Gabriel hadn't intended to put Adrien in danger (or for Ladybug to see him in the nude), but he really should know by now that keeping a handle on his explosive temper was important.

Adrien's eyes were still covered with hair when the water running over him suddenly stopped and a towel was shoved into his stomach. Adrien fumbled with it, trying not to let anything important show as he switched out the bottle for the towel. He tried (unsuccessfully) to shove his bangs out of his face with his shoulder as he kept a tight hold on the towel. As he struggled, he felt Ladybug's hesitant fingers on his face, pushing his sodden hair back out of his face.

As Ladybug pushed the last of Adrien's hair out of his face, he could feel his cheeks heating up again. His eyes blinked open to see Ladybug blushing as well. She had backed up so she wasn't in his personal space bubble anymore and her eyes were squeezed tightly closed. Adrien took the opportunity to unfold the towel quickly and wrap it more securely around his waist.

"I'll, uh, go grab some clean clothes," Adrien managed, his voice embarrassingly high and squeaky. He tried clearing his throat and ended up sounding like he was dying. Instead of trying to salvage his pride, Adrien simply turned and _bolted._

* * *

As soon as she heard Adrien leave the room, Ladybug opened her eyes again carefully. She could hear the thud of dresser drawers being opened and closed from the other room, so she carefully trained that out and looked outside to try to figure out where the Pyromaniac was. Not hearing anything, she flipped open her yo-yo to pull up the news.

What she saw was a live stream video of the Pyromaniac aiming what looked like a giant bazooka straight at the front of the Agreste Mansion.

 _Fuck._

Praying that Adrien had managed to get at least a _little_ dressed, Ladybug bolted out of the bathroom and into Adrien's room. Adrien looked up, startled, dressed only in boxers (red, she noticed) and the towel slung around his neck.

 _Well, it was better than wearing nothing._

"I'm not done getting dressed-" Adrien started, the flush immediately starting to appear again on his neck and chest. Ladybug resolutely ignored it. There were more important thing to worry about, like not getting both of them blown up.

"The house is about to get blown up. We are _leaving_." Without waiting for a protest, Ladybug picked Adrien up, kicked a window open, and threw her yo-yo. They took off without a warning, making Adrien yelp and cling to Ladybug tightly, wrapping his legs around her waist and his arms around her neck.

Two seconds later, the entire house exploded in a flash of multicolored light, flying debris only barely missing Ladybug and Adrien as they soared away. Ladybug swung them several buildings away, finally landing on the top of a tall building that would probably be safe for Adrien. If he was lucky, no one would see him up here until she returned after defeating the akuma.

"I'll come back up and get you after the akuma is defeated," Ladybug promised, pushing the words out as fast as she could while keeping her gaze fixed away from the half-dressed Adrien. "Just... stay up here." Before she could stutter (or get distracted by Adrien's abs), she flung her yo-yo and jumped, zipping away as fast as she could.

She had to things to get done.

* * *

Adrien wasn't sure what he wanted to stare at more: Ladybug's retreating back or the smoking remains of his house. He had forgotten to ask Ladybug if everyone else had gotten out safely.

Before he could stare too much, Plagg zipped out of the folds of the towel still wrapped around his shoulders. As soon as the kwami saw the coast was clear, he started _howling_ with laughter, nearly forgetting to float as he snorted and snickered.

"It's not _funny_ ," Adrien grumbled, trying not to sulk too much. He didn't succeed. "She saw me _naked_."

"How many times has she _thought_ she saw you naked before?" Plagg asked, still snickering. "Twice, because you keep pretending that your way of dealing with akuma attacks is to drown yourself in the shower? You really need to find some other way of responding to her showing up at your house, you know. She'll start thinking something is up if you're always in the shower."

"That was different. I wasn't _actually_ naked those times."

"She thought you were, though! It counts!"

"It does _not_." Adrien breathed out sharply through his nose, willing the redness still staining his face and chest to go away. "She would have found out that I had been lying eventually if we ever revealed ourselves to each other. But _now?_ How can I ever look her in the face again?" He groaned. "I should just move to Antarctica. Have you ever been to Antarctica, Plagg?"

"Head in the game, lover boy." Plagg cackled again, and Adrien just _knew_ he would never hear the end of this. "Don't you have a supervillain to stop?"

* * *

"I need to go," Ladybug said as soon as she and Chat Noir fist-bumped after the Pyromaniac was defeated. "I left Adrien stranded on top of a building and I need to go rescue him before my transformation wears off."

"Oh, I saw that," Chat spoke up quickly, seeing his opportunity. There was no _way_ he'd be able to get back to the tower before Ladybug without her seeing him, so it would be much better if he got Ladybug to let him "rescue" Adrien. Besides, he was pretty certain that he would die of embarrassment if he had to face his lady in his boxers again. "I can go get him, since I'm going in that direction anyway." When Ladybug looked a little doubtful, he added, "It might be less embarrassing for him if a guy goes and gets him if he's not entirely dressed."

"Oh, that's true," Ladybug agreed immediately, looking strangely... relieved. Maybe she had been just as embarrassed as he had been. "Do you have enough time left before your transformation runs out?"

Chat Noir nodded eagerly, hoping he didn't look too desperate even as his ring let out its second beep. "Yes, yes, of course, as long as I leave right away."

"That sounds good." Ladybug _definitely_ looked relieved. "Uh, if you end up not being able to get him in time, just call me before you detransform. Good luck!" With that, she was gone.

Chat Noir let out a huge sigh of relief.

* * *

"Bro, I heard about the craziness at your house this weekend!" Nino slid into his normal seat next to Adrien, grinning like crazy. "Man, you got to be saved by _Ladybug_! That's awesome!" Before Adrien could say anything, Nino's grin turned into an all-out smirk. "Nice Ladybug boxers, by the way. You two matched."

Adrien's face turned pink. Behind him, he could hear someone make a choking noise. Nino grinned at his reaction and waved his phone tauntingly, smirk growing wider. "Someone got pictures. Ladybug's got nice timing, eh? You guys barely got out of the house before it exploded."

" _I_ was wondering about the timing, actually." Alya's mischievous voice came from almost directly behind Adrien and he turned around to see her practically sitting on Marinette (who had her face buried in her arms for some reason) and leaning forward across the table so she was practically in his face. "You were only in your boxers and a towel and your hair looked like it was absolutely _sopping_ wet. Did a certain spotted superhero interrupt your shower, by any chance?"

The blush on Adrien's face told Alya everything she needed to know and she positively _howled_ with laughter as Nino chuckled along. Marinette's ears turned redder.

"You both suck," Adrien informed Alya and Nino, trying to hold onto the last shreds of his dignity. _Of course someone took pictures._ Hopefully his father would never find out. "Marinette's my favorite person right now, since she's not making fun of me."

Marinette's only response was a muffled squeak.

* * *

"I can't believe Adrien has _Ladybug_ boxers and I didn't even notice," Marinette groaned as soon as she got home and had shut her trapdoor behind her. She had spent the _entire day_ having to relive what she was calling The Shower Fiasco 3.0 because Nino and Alya had taken great joy in ribbing Adrien about it and trying to get him to divulge more details about what had happened. Marinette was pretty sure that she had never seen anyone stay so red for so long.

Of course, Adrien hadn't helped anything by trying to use her as a buffer between him and their friends. He had decided to interpret her red face and lack of questions as embarrassment on his behalf and had stayed near her all day, even going so far as to boot Alya out of her regular seat during two of their classes and pulling Marinette down to sit next to him during lunch. It hadn't helped, of course; Alya and Nino just leaned around Marinette to continue their teasing. It was only after Marinette had finally managed to find her voice again (sometime during their second-to-last class) and suggested to Alya that Adrien likely wasn't comfortable with the teasing that they finally backed off.

Tikki giggled, phasing out of Marinette's purse and coming to rest on the back of Marinette's head as the dark haired girl thumped her face into her pillow. "Well, you _did_ have other things to worry about and you were trying to keep your eyes in appropriate places."

"I still can't believe I caught Adrien in the shower _again._ Does he spend all of his time there? Maybe he's part merman," Marinette suggested somewhat frantically. "That would explain why I get all tongue-tied around him, if he has some sort of fishy magic-"

"I'm sure he's fully human, Marinette," Tikki sighed. "You didn't like him at first, remember? And then he was nice, and you liked him after that. There's nothing out of the ordinary about that." The quantic god spun around Marinette's head, trying to get the girl's attention. "I'm sure you'll recover soon enough. I mean, not every day is going to be like today, with Alya and Nino talking about it all day!"

"I'm still going to have to see Adrien every day," Marinette groaned, turning over and flinging her arm dramatically over her face. "And we had a partner assignment assigned in Literature today, and Adrien grabbed me so that he wouldn't end up paired with Alya or Nino, so we'll have to spend time together _alone_ \- and what'll I do if we go and work in his _room?_ "

Tikki giggled. "I'm starting to think Alya only spent so much time bugging Adrien today because it made him spend more time with you! You'll be fine, Marinette."

"Yeah, right." Marinette flopped back onto her rolling chair and stared at her wall blankly. "I'll never be able to look Adrien in the face again."

* * *

"I don't know how I'll ever be able to look Ladybug in the face again." Adrien let out a long sigh as he flopped facedown on his bed, totally exhausted and still a bit pink from being teased about his weekend adventures for the entire day. Nino and Alya had finally seemed to drop it near the end of the day (he suspected Marinette had something to do with it; he _really_ owed her now), but the guys in his fencing practice had had a field day.

"This wouldn't happen if you closed and locked your bathroom window like a normal person." Ever unhelpful, Plagg floated over to Adrien's desk to munch on his cheese. "But noooo, you left it wide open like you were _trying_ to attract Ladybug. You know, all of my _other_ chosens had a bit of common sense with their bathroom windows and they never had these problems."

"That would have been good to point out _before_ Ladybug came flying in."

"I'm not here to be helpful, kid."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm aware of that." Adrien sat up, automatically heading towards the bathroom to take a shower and clear his mind. He froze halfway there, suddenly realizing what he was doing. _Damn it._

Plagg was cackling from his desk, fully amused as Adrien rocked back on his heels on the threshold to the bathroom. "Don't forget to close the bathroom window this time! Or maybe you should leave it open and hang a sign on it- 'Come and visit, Ladybug!'!"

"Not helping, Plagg." Adrien turned away from the bathroom, ignoring his kwami's snickers. He pulled his iPod out and put in his earbuds, turning the music up to block Plagg out. He really didn't need to hear more of the teasing right now. Adrien knew that Plagg was unlikely to shut up anytime soon...unless they were out in public.

The only problem? It was rainy and already getting dark outside despite the relatively early hour. He briefly considered going to the library before he remembered that several of his fencing teammates had been talking about working on a project there.

 _Projects_. That was it exactly! Adrien turned to his desk, searching for his phone so he could call Marinette. It wasn't too late for him to go over and start work on their project with her and if he did, Plagg wouldn't be able to tease him.

Smiling, Adrien pulled up the number Alya given him just after school and hit call.

* * *

Marinette was looking forward to a quiet evening of catching up on her homework, working on a couple designs, and doing her best to forget about the weekend's events. It had been impossible at school, where Adrien's head had been in her range of vision during every single class. Normally it was a pleasant sight, but now she could only think about how that hair had been plastered over Adrien's face and neck as he stood in the shower.

She had been doing a pretty good job with distracting herself until her phone rang. Marinette picked up absentmindedly, expecting to hear Alya's voice on the other end of the line. Instead, a familiar male voice met her.

"Hi, Marinette," Adrien said cheerfully, and Marinette's stomach dropped. Tikki giggled, watching as Marinette's face went almost horrified as her jaw went slack. "Are you free tonight? Do you want to start working on our project?"

Marinette only just stopped her head from hitting her desk. She knew that Adrien wasn't doing this on purpose, that he had no way of knowing that she was Ladybug and it was mortifying to be around him, but it didn't make it any easier. Drawing on every single well of strength she had, Marinette tried to keep her voice in a vaguely normal range as she answered.

"T-that sounds like a good idea. I-I'm free right now." Marinette managed. She opened her mouth to invite Adrien over- there was no way she would be able to forget about the whole shower fiasco (well, fiascos- she still couldn't believe it had happened _three. freaking. times._ ) if the bathroom was _right. there_. But Adrien beat her to it.

"You can come over here or I could have my driver bring me over there," Adrien said. He sounded slightly nervous about inviting himself over. "Whatever works best for you."

"Over here would be good," Marinette blurted as fast as she could. She swallowed, then tried to sound more normal. "We'll just have to make sure we're not too loud since my parents go to bed so early."

"Right, of course." A pause. "Are you certain your parents won't mind? I don't want to impose."

"Alya's been over pretty late before. They'll be fine. It's not even that late right now, so they'll still be up." Marinette's desperation to avoid Adrien's house let her power through what might have at one point been a difficult conversation. Granted, conversation had been flowing a lot more smoothly since her gaming competition and her great-uncle's visit, but she had been certain that the Shower Incident Part 3 would put them back on square one.

"Okay! I'll be over soon!"

Marinette groaned as she disconnected the call and flopped back on her bed, unbelieving that her luck could be so awful. "The world hates me."

Tikki giggled. "No it doesn't."

"I will. And mom and dad are just going to make it worse by sticking their head is all the time and cooing at us like they did last time." Sighing, Marinette pushed herself to her feet so she could go talk to her parents, resigning herself to her fate of death by embarrassment.

Adrien could never find out that she was Ladybug. _Never._


	2. The Speedos Incident

It all started when Mr. D'Argencourt fell down the stairs and broke both his ankle and his shoulder, putting fencing lessons on hold for an indeterminate amount of time.

"You need another activity to fill that time slot," Mr. Agreste told Adrien (well, Nathalie told Adrien after Mr. Agreste told her) as soon as he heard the news. "Mr. D'Argencourt will be out for quite a while recovering."

"I can't just have the time off?" Adrien asked hopefully, giving his father's secretary his best kitten eyes. "Please, Nathalie, I promise I'll stay in shape. I can go running or something."

Nathalie peered at him sternly, totally unswayed by the expression. "Activities such as running would make it difficult for your bodyguard or I to keep track of you unless we could find a track with a suitable gym. Your father prefers that you participate in organized activities."

 _Of course he does,_ Adrien thought sourly as his expression fell. _That way he can make sure I'm always being watched_.

"I have already found something for you to do. Swim team, meeting three times a week." Nathalie scrolled through her tablet. "It's not a super-competitive team, which is why they don't meet more often, and also why you've been accepted a week into training without any entrance test."

Adrien blinked. "I don't think I've actually gone swimming for over a year."

"You'll remember it, I'm sure. The coach seems very competent."

 _Competent_ really didn't mean much. _Friendly_ would have been better. _Understanding_ , maybe.

"Please find your old swimsuit and try it on before tomorrow. If it doesn't fit or you can't find it, let me know right away and I can put in an order. I've already ordered goggles and a swim cap for you."

Adrien's shoulders slumped, resigned. There was very rarely any point to arguing with Nathalie or his father.

He would just have to hope that he remembered enough from his swimming lessons as a kid not to make a fool of himself.

* * *

"A _Speedo?_ " Adrien spluttered, incredulous.

The coach didn't look particularly impressed with Adrien's spluttering. "Yes, of course. You have to be streamlined in the water, which the kind of swimsuit _you_ are wearing just doesn't allow for. Even if we aren't a top competing team, we are hardly slackers."

Adrien resisted the urge to flinch away at the coach's irritated expression. He hadn't been particularly happy to have the Gorilla sitting in the bleachers around the pool, then he had told Adrien off for not leaving his bag (with Plagg) in the locker room, and now this. Adrien was pretty sure that he was giving off major "spoiled-rich-kid" vibes.

"You can swim like this for the day, but I expect that you have the proper swimwear by our next practice." Another dubious side-eye. "And we _do_ require swim caps, especially for longer hair such as yours."

"I have a swim cap!" Adrien assured the coach. He pulled it out of his swimsuit pocket along with his goggles.

"Good. Put it and the goggles on and get in. I want to see how you do in the water."

Adrien gulped as soon as the coach walked off. He _knew_ he should have gotten in at least a little practice before coming. If the coach wasn't impressed with him now, Adrien could only imagine what he would be like after seeing Adrien swim. He could only hope that he wouldn't be tossed off the team within the first practice.

His father would _not_ be pleased.

Tucking his hair into the dark green swim cap, Adrien surveyed the rest of the pool Sure enough, all of the other boys were dressed in Speedos. Some of the boys were definitely better swimmers than the others, but Adrien suspected that all of them would be far better than him.

Adrien took a deep breath and climbed down into the pool quickly, not letting the cool water dissuade him. He ducked his head underwater, making sure his goggles were properly in place before letting his eyes blink open.

At least Chat Noir's feline tendencies didn't extend to hating the water. _That_ would make things even more difficult.

* * *

After the first disastrous meeting, things started to go better for Adrien during his swimming practices. The Speedo came quickly, so Adrien was properly dressed (and incredibly uncomfortable) for his second practice. Thankfully the other boys hadn't really caught on to the swimsuit drama Adrien had had in his first practice and they didn't seem to care that he had joined after practices had started, so several had been willing to give Adrien tips on how to improve his swimming.

And improve Adrien did. He was already pretty strong from his various other activities and he had a talent for picking up physical activities pretty quickly. It didn't take long for him to become one of the fastest swimmers on the team. Probably the only thing that kept some of the other boys from resenting him was the fact that the coach still wasn't very fond of him and wasn't shy about showing it. Adrien was _incredibly_ lucky that there hadn't been any akuma attacks during the practices, because he was positive that the coach wouldn't be even a little lenient about him missing part of practice. He _had_ been able to persuade the Gorilla to stop sitting in on the practices, which only reduced the coach's frosty demeanor towards him slightly.

What didn't change at all was Adrien's distaste of the Speedos. It was, without a doubt, the least clothes Adrien had ever worn out in public since he was a clothes-hating, often-nude toddler. While they were _technically_ the right size, they hugged his body a little _too_ much for his comfort and they just showed _so. much. skin_.

Of course, being the good friend that he was, Nino would _not. stop. laughing._ when Adrien told him about the swimming practices and his new swimsuit.

"I can't help it, dude. You look so _disgusted_ with the whole Speedos aspect." Nino chortled again. "None of your fangirls have shown up to watch, have they? I bet they'd love to see you shirtless and in the tightest swimsuit known to mankind."

"The Gorilla sits watch outside the pool during practices. He offered to go sit in the cafe across the street instead if I didn't want him hovering, but I'm honestly terrified that word will get out somehow." Adrien glanced around them, still feeling a bit paranoid about it. "I mean, I'm sure _most_ of the fangirls are perfectly nice people who wouldn't burst in or anything, but there's a couple that just..."

"I get ya, man." Nino clapped Adrien on the shoulder. Then he grinned again. "Yeah, Chloe showing up _would_ be a nightmare, wouldn't it?"

"Don't even tease." Adrien shuddered. "That's exactly why I keep the Gorilla on-site. He's one of the only people who isn't scared to pull Chloe off of me. He just gives her this _look_ when she starts going 'My father will hear about this'."

Nino snickered before pelting Adrien with more questions. "What are you going to do about competitions? Didn't you say you had those? Surely they aren't closed to the public."

"I'll wear a towel and a t-shirt whenever I'm not in the water." Even though swimming meets were still a ways out, the idea still was putting Adrien on edge. Nino was right- the meets _were_ open to the public- and if any of his more rabid fangirls (or Chloe) found out that he would be swimming...

Well, that was what the Gorilla was for.

* * *

The list of who was going to be competing in what race of their first meet of the season was going to be posted at the end of practice after everyone had gotten out of the pool. Even though they knew that everybody would be swimming in at least one race, most of the boys hung around so that they could see the lists as soon as possible.

Adrien took the opportunity to hurry off to the locker room, shower, and change. While he had gotten used to wearing the Speedos in the water, he was still uncomfortable in them the rest of the time. They _really_ didn't leave much to the imagination, especially when they were wet and clingy. So when Adrien got the chance to shower and change without others around, he took it.

After all, the lists were still going to be there when he was back in normal, comfortable, _non-skin-revealing_ clothes.

Adrien turned on the shower and stepped back into the spray, peeling off his swim cap as he did. His hair tumbled out and immediately plastered itself to his face. Adrien shoved it back with a sigh as he washed the chlorine from the pool out of his hair and off of his skin, letting his mind wander as he lathered up his shampoo and rinsed it out of his hair. He hadn't seen Ladybug for several days thanks to a sudden lack of akuma attacks and he definitely missed her.

The Ladyblog was not helping him deal with the hiatus. Alya was taking advantage of the lull to post people's pictures from past attacks, which included a number of photos from the time when Ladybug had crashed in on him showering. After seeing a those pictures, Adrien closed the tab and swore not to check the Ladyblog again until there was another attack.

He _still_ couldn't believe that he had pulled on his Ladybug-themed boxers and hadn't even noticed until later.

 _Thanks a lot for buying those for me, Nino. Really appreciate it, dude._

There still weren't any footsteps coming down the hallway and to the locker room. Adrien fidgeted with the waistband of his Speedos, trying to decide if he wanted to take them off. Showering with them on was yet another thing he wasn't used to doing, though he definitely wasn't comfortable showering naked in a room full of other people. Some of the other guys on his team seemed to have no problem with it, but Adrien was just too private of a person.

(Besides, he was still a little worried that rabid fangirls would break in at any moment, even with the Gorilla guarding the locker room entrance.)

But he was alone now, and without the chatter of the rest of his team it would be easy to hear anyone approaching. His Speedos were getting _seriously_ uncomfortable. Adrien hooked his thumbs into the elastic waistband, tugging downwards-

And then the screaming started.

Adrien froze, swimsuit clinging low on his hips as he stared in the direction of the swimming pool-side locker room door. With the echoing hallways, it was hard to tell if the screaming was of joy or of terror. Surely someone hadn't been akumatized? Their team was supposed to be for fun, not for glory, so everyone got at least one race to be in no matter what skill level they had.

Another scream echoed down the hall and Adrien hurried to wash the conditioner out of his hair. Those were sounding suspiciously like terrified screams, and if there _was_ an akuma then he needed to hurry up and get out there. There was no way he could transform with conditioner in his hair, though. It would be a dead giveaway.

Just as Adrien rinsed the last of the conditioner out of his hair and turned the water off, the locker room door on the far side opened with a _bang_. Curious, Adrien stepped forward into the doorway between the showers and the rest of the locker room.

He hadn't been expecting the familiar red-and-black blur that immediately slammed into him, sending them both crashing down onto the floor in a mess of tangled limbs. For one long moment, both Adrien and Ladybug were frozen as they stared at each other. Adrien could only find the presence of mind to thank his lucky stars that he _hadn't_ managed to pull his swimsuit off before the screaming started because if he was naked and they were in this position...

 _Awkward_.

Okay, well, _more_ awkward. As it was, Adrien was still hoping that this was all a really bad dream. Was accidentally being naked in front of Ladybug _once_ not enough?

He must have been a terrible person in a previous life. Maybe he kicked kittens. That was the only explanation for why this kept happening.

Even if he wasn't naked in front of Ladybug again, the Speedos weren't a huge improvement. Not only were they skimpy (he was _never_ going to do underwear photoshoots, _ever_ ), they really didn't hide much and _maaaaaybe_ Adrien shouldn't have let his mind wander so much earlier when he was in the shower. It didn't help his situation at all that Ladybug was still sitting on top of him.

Ladybug recovered first, even as her cheeks went bright red.

"HOW ARE YOU ALWAYS IN THE SHOWER?"

"Whoops?" Adrien offered weakly, wishing he could vanish through the floor.

" _Whoops?!"_

Adrien winced, looking everywhere _except_ at Ladybug. His luck was almost _impossibly_ bad, honestly, and Adrien was wondering how the situation could possibly get any worse when he noticed Plagg out of the corner of his eye. The little monster was hovering in _plain sight_ in the doorway, snickering silently as he ate something from a greasy paper bag- was that _popcorn?_

Adrien was going to kill the kwami as soon as he got his hands on him.

"Sorry for knocking you over," Ladybug continued, still blushing but not moving from her position on top of Adrien. He was going to die if she didn't get off of him soon, because he wasn't strong enough to deal with Ladybug straddling him and looking down at him with those big blue eyes and-

Nope, he was stopping _those_ thoughts before they went any further.

Ladybug plowed on, oblivious to Adrien's imminent death. "I was just in a hurry, and these locker rooms were the closest to the entrance, so I didn't really stop to read the sign on the door-"

"It's fine!" Adrien squeaked. He winced at how high-pitched his voice came out. "So, uh, there's an akuma?"

"Yeah, in the swimming pool area- RIGHT!" Ladybug suddenly squeaked, shooting up off of Adrien in one blindingly fast move. "The akuma! I'm going there! Right now! Sorry! Stay safe, hot stuff!"

A second later, the door slammed shut behind her as Adrien stared a bit blankly at the place where she had just been moments before.

 _Hot stuff?_

Adrien's face flamed even as he picked himself up off the floor. As he dusted himself off, he could already tell that he was probably going to bruise, both from the floor and where Ladybug had rammed into him. He turned towards the locker room, hoping that he could change into normal clothes before he ran into Ladybug again. He couldn't handle any more half-dressed encounters today.

The door opened again and a squeak froze Adrien in his tracks. He twisted his head around to look, hoping that the akuma hadn't come for him and that it was one of his teammates instead.

What he saw was Ladybug's head sticking around the corner, her eyes locked on his derrière. A second later her eyes slid up and her cheeks went red as she realized that she had been caught.

Adrien blinked, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

"I- I meant to tell you!" Ladybug blurted as her cheeks turned steadily redder. "The, ah, akuma is after you because of the, uh, swimsuit, so...maybe throw something on top of it?"

With that, she was gone again.

Plagg howled with laughter.

"What do you think you were _doing?_ " Adrien demanded, whipping his head back around to glare at his kwami. "Ladybug could have seen you! And where did you get that popcorn?"

"Ladybug was too busy staring at you to notice me," Plagg said, infuriatingly unconcerned as he reached deeper into the bag and pulled out another orange-dusted piece of popcorn. "And you didn't pack enough cheese, so I had to go out and find my own. This stuff is tasty."

"Someone could have seen you!"

Plagg snorted, tossing the popcorn into the air and practically inhaling it. Adrien briefly wished that the kwami would choke on it. "I was careful."

"Yeah, you always say that but I'm inclined not to believe you." It only took a second for Adrien to figure out where Plagg had gotten his snack; there was a fundraiser stand in the lobby, and he had smelled popcorn earlier as he passed. How Plagg could have possibly travelled from the locker rooms in the basement of the facility up a set of stairs, across the always-occupied lobby and back- _plus_ the actual stealing of the popcorn bag- without being noticed was still a mystery.

Another scream echoed down the hall, jolting Adrien into action. Rather than trying to change out of his swimsuit, he just toweled himself off quickly and tugged a shirt and shorts over his Speedos. There was _no way_ he was going to change properly until he was _positive_ that both Ladybug and the akuma were gone. His embarrassment quota for the day was _definitely_ full at this point.

"So, you and Ladybug put on quite the show there," Plagg prodded when it became apparent when Adrien wasn't going to say anything. The little god was grinning evilly. "All your dreams come true, eh?"

"That was awful," Adrien groaned, rubbing a towel through his hair one last time before tossing it onto the bench. "I wish we didn't need Speedos. A normal swimsuit would have been so much better."

Plagg licked his paws off. "I don't see the difference. You still would have a bare chest and legs."

"Normal swimsuits aren't as tight."

Plagg dove into the bag to lick the cheese powder off the sides. "Your suit is really tight and you've been that close to Ladybug while transformed before. You're just being a drama queen."

Adrien scowled. "The suit _feels_ thicker and it covers a whole lot more skin." It was _totally_ different. Besides, the suit, well, _hid more_. The Speedos, which were stretchy in all the wrong places, did not.

More screams echoed down the hallway. Ladybug's commanding voice carried above them all, distracting the akuma and keeping its attention on her as the swimmers got away. Adrien winced, knowing full well that he would have to go face Ladybug sooner rather than later and pretend that the whole incident hadn't ever happened.

After this was all over and done, he was moving to Antarctica. Even if it was freezing, at least he wouldn't have deal with the crippling embarrassment.

* * *

Marinette was very, very glad that there had been no one in the changing room to witness her- or rather, Ladybug's- blunder with Adrien. It meant no articles, no pictures, and best of all, no embarrassing conversations to remind her of the unfortunate run-in for ages after it happened. With the exception of her never being able to face Adrien as Ladybug ever again (and maybe not even as herself ever again), it would be like the whole encounter had never happened.

She hadn't been counting on the bruises.

Since the weather had turned warm for the upcoming summer months, students had taken to wearing t-shirts and shorts, and Adrien wasn't exempt from the trend. Even with what looked like concealer smeared over the blue-green bruises on his arms and legs, the marks from where she had rammed into him and where he had hit the floor were still obvious. Marinette blinked, taken aback.

 _Surely she hadn't run into him_ _ **that**_ _hard, had she?_

"Dude, what happened?" Nino demanded as soon as he saw the injuries, yanking Adrien's arm over to inspect. "I know you were caught in an akuma attack, but I thought Ladybug's Healing Light always fixed everything from the attacks?"

Adrien winced, tugging at his sleeve as though trying to will it long enough to cover the bruises. "It wasn't the akuma that ran into me. It was Ladybug. I guess the Healing Light didn't count it as part of the attack."

From next to Marinette, Alya gasped as she looked Adrien over. " _Ladybug_ bruised you up? What were you _doing?_ " The concern in her voice was only undermined by her wriggling eyebrows and devious grin. Clearly Alya hadn't forgotten about the previous shower-related fiasco.

Both Marinette and Adrien flushed at the insinuation. While the teasing from the _previous_ shower incident had died down somewhat, Alya hadn't let it drop completely.

"She was on her way to fight the akuma and took a shortcut through the men's locker room at the pool," Adrien explained, rubbing his shoulder. Marinette guessed that it was probably bruised up as well. "She was going pretty fast and I sort of stepped straight into her path without realizing it. It was sort of like getting hit by a speeding bike."

Alya looked like the cat that caught the canary. "You were in the locker room? Were you, by any chance, in the middle of changing?"

Marinette groaned and thumped her head against the table. _Not again_. She had been _so. close._ to getting away without the constant reminders of her latest screw-up.

"No, I was coming in from the pool," Adrien shot back. He didn't mention the shower at all, for which Marinette was eternally grateful. Alya and Nino _never_ would let it drop if they heard that Ladybug had caught Adrien in the middle of a shower _again_.

(She only knew that he had been showering because she had just happened to Adrien had smelled like soap and not chlorine when she ran into him. It was _not_ a creepy thing to notice.)

(It was _not._ )

Alya grinned. "So no shirt?"

"No shirt and _Speedos_ ," Nino chimed in, smirking when Adrien shot a betrayed look at him. "Pretty boy here was complaining about them when he started swimming. Don't think I wasn't planning on getting you back for those mental pictures, dude. All that complaining about ' _they leave nothing to the imagination'_ and ' _they're so tight that it's practically like wearing nothing at all'._ "

Alya looked torn between thrilled and disgusted by the new information.

"And judging by the time of the attack and the fact that you were in the locker room, I deduce that you must have just finished practice and were either in the shower or just got out," Nino continued, grinning at Adrien's mortified expression. Marinette could feel her heart sinking. "And you mentioned in your text yesterday that races had been posted but you hadn't looked yet, so I'm guessing that your teammates were still in the pool area... but you weren't."

"What are you, Sherlock Homes?" Adrien groaned, burying his face in his hands. " _Stop._ "

Predictably, Nino didn't.

"And everyone knows that shower time is daydream time, especially if there's no one else in the room," Nino continued, ignoring Adrien's splutters and the small groan of protest from Marinette. "And daydream time means tight Speedos time, assuming that you didn't take advantage of the empty room and take them off."

"I didn't," Adrien muttered as Marinette choked. _Had he really been daydreaming about...?_

Nope. She was _not_ going to let her thoughts go down that path. She was scrubbing the whole incident from her mind. If class weren't about to start, she'd plug in her earbuds and hum as loud as she could until the conversation was over. Besides, Nino hadn't actually _said_ what (or who) Adrien had likely been daydreaming about. She was just jumping to conclusions. Highly inappropriate conclusions. Probably highly inaccurate inappropriate conclusions.

"Man, Ladybug _does_ just manage to run into you at the worst times," Nino exclaimed, grinning. "Of course, she wouldn't do that so often if you didn't shower all the time, Mr. Model Boy."

"I don't shower _all the time._ "

 _Yes you do,_ Marinette thought before resolutely wiping her mind blank again. _Not thinking about it, not thinking about it, not thinking about it..._

"Yes you do, dude. That's, what, the third time Ladybug's caught you in the shower?" Nino snickered.

"Fourth," Adrien muttered, face flaming. "Can we _not_ talk about it? At least I had _some_ clothing on this time."

"It might as well have been none, from the sounds of it." Nino snickered again.

"NOT TALKING ABOUT IT."

"Oh come on-"

"Nope." Adrien was looking a little cornered now as he looked everywhere except at his amused friends. It was obvious that he was looking for some kind of escape- something, anything-

Marinette couldn't hide her flinch as Adrien suddenly turned to her, eyes abruptly focused. Her overactive mind raced, immediately pouncing on the worst possible outcomes.

 _He's figured out that I'm Ladybug and he's totally disgusted that I've see him like that and am listening to the conversation like a total creeper and oh my god what if he outs me right now and Alya and Nino think that I'm disgusting even though I never_ meant _to crash any of Adrien's showers and he probably never wants to see me or speak to me again I might as well move to Antarctica right now this is so bad-_

She was so busy panicking that she completely missed what Adrien said next.

"I- sorry, what?" Marinette blurted when it became clear that Adrien was waiting for some sort of answer. He didn't look angry or accusing at all, just a bit confused and maybe concerned. "I zoned out there for a bit."

"It's not a problem. I was just wondering if you wanted to work on our project later? I know it's mostly done, but I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for Thursday." Adrien flashed big green kitten eyes up at Marinette. "And maybe we can play some Ultimate Megastrike Three when we're done?"

He was asking her to hang out. Only thirteen hours after their last excruciatingly embarrassing encounter (she had called him _hot stuff_ to his _face_ and gotten caught oogling his rear), Marinette hadn't recovered yet and he was asking her to _hang out_.

So she really couldn't be blamed when her face made contact with her desk with a resounding _thud_ several times in a row as her friends looked on in amusement (in Alya and Nino's case) and concern (Adrien, naturally).

"Ah, I think we broke her with the Speedos talk," Nino joked. Even with her face plastered to the desk, Marinette could practically _hear_ his smirk. "All your fault, Adrien."

" _I_ was perfectly content to never speak of it again." A finger prodded the crown of Marinette's head. "You okay there?"

"'M fine." Before she could embarrass herself further, Marinette picked her head back off the desk. She could do this. She could manage to spend time together with Adrien without passing out from embarrassment or making any inappropriate comments. She'd managed it before, after all, and that time she had seen Adrien in all his glory. She took a deep breath before summoning her most confident smile. "Sure, we can meet later. What time are you free?"

If she was going to die of embarrassment, at least no one could say that she hadn't at least _tried_ to act normal.


	3. A Shower of Embarassment

_Last chapter! This story is now complete. :)_

* * *

By the eighth time it happened, Ladybug and Adrien had their routine down to a science. Adrien would leave towels by the windows and the door every time he showered, just in case Ladybug had to barge in. She would grab the closest towel and chuck it at him with her eyes squeezed tightly shut as she entered, and Adrien would do his best to catch the towel before it could get soaked, either by the stream of water from his shower or by hitting the floor.

He hadn't done terribly well so far (read: he had fumbled the stupid towel _every. single. time._ ), but the towel was really more to cover himself with while Ladybug briefed him on the situation really, really quickly and went to wait in his room. He had plenty of towels in the rest of his bathroom that were dry, because the household staff apparently thought that every teenaged boy needed a dozen fluffy monogrammed towels in his personal bathroom.

Adrien would get dressed quickly, of course. Sometimes he could only manage boxers (he hid his Ladybug ones in the deepest corner of his dresser as to avoid a repeat of _that_ particular incident) and a dressing robe before he had to be whisked out of his house. Sometimes he managed to put himself almost completely together (with the exception of his sopping hair) before leaving. Usually it was somewhere in between.

What had caused this sudden flurry of attacks on the Agreste residence? It was a very simple answer, really.

The Paris Men's Fashion Week was rapidly approaching, sending fashionable tempers rocketing sky-high as stress mounted up. Gabriel Agreste was not exactly being laid-back in the best of times, and his normally abrasive attitude got even worse as the stress mounted higher and little things didn't go exactly to plan. In the weeks immediately prior to the start of the event, he had even managed to surpass Chloe in maximum number of akumas caused in a week.

And when the people Gabriel had upset inevitably turned into akumas, they went after his weak spot: his son. Adrien didn't particularly appreciate being a constant akuma target, but trying to get his father to control his temper around fashion week was like trying to tell the tides to ignore the pull of the moon. He could try, but it wouldn't do any good.

Despite what it probably appeared like to Ladybug, Adrien wasn't spending _all_ of his time in the shower. His swim team was practicing more often so they could do one last mid-summer meet before disbanding until the next season, which Adrien wasn't planning on participating in. After three separate locker room break-in attempts by particularly rabid fangirls, Adrien had decided to tolerate the uncomfortable wetness and chlorine smell that came with the pool for the ride home and then shower in his own room. On top of that, fencing had resumed with a vengeance now that the instructor was back in good health. All of the afternoons Adrien didn't have swimming were filled to the brim with fencing and some days he had both, which meant double showers as he rushed to wash out the chlorine smell before donning his fencing gear. Lots of activity meant lots of sweat, which in turn meant lots of showers. It was unfortunate, because his hair was in danger of drying out from both the chlorine and the constant washings, but it couldn't be helped.

The way that the akuma attacks just so happened to line up with his showers was pure coincidence...with maybe a little (huge) helping of bad luck. Plagg loudly denied any involvement.

"I can't wait until this fashion week is over," Adrien sighed to Plagg as he stepped under the shower's spray. Today's exercise of choice had been fencing and he was exhausted. Mr. D'Argencourt had been pushing him to his limits so that he could compete in a citywide competition near the end of the summer, which meant a lot of getting his rear handed to him on a plate while he tried not to feel too bad about it. "At least I'll be done with swimming by the time the next one rolls around. That means, like, fifty percent less time in the shower."

Plagg let out an irritated squawk from his place on the counter. "There's more than one Fashion Week in Paris? I thought we were done for a year after this! _Ugh,_ this is ridiculous!"

Adrien shook his head as he rubbed in his shampoo. It was a new one, extra-gentle so it didn't strip too many natural oils and dry out his hair. It also smelled like strawberries, which made Adrien suspect that whoever had done the shopping for him perhaps had either ended up in the woman's section, hadn't read the labels, or was trying to tell him something about how he normally smelled. "There's three. This one is the Men's Fashion Week, and then there's the Haute Couture Fashion Week, and then the normal Fashion Week in September."

Plagg groaned loudly.

"It's not like I participate in any of them."

"No, you're too busy showering," Plagg shot back. There was a loud gulp- Plagg swallowing his cheese, Adrien was willing to bet- and then the insufferable kwami continued. "And there's too many akumas coming after you when there's a fashion week. It's annoying."

"I don't do fashion weeks because I'm too young to model the lines aimed at older customers," Adrien shot back as he rinsed out the shampoo. "No self-respecting twenty-year-old is going to want to wear anything that's been modeled by someone who's fifteen. And didn't you say that Hawkmoth can't akumatize different people for the same thing? He'll run out of ideas soon."

There was a pause. Adrien couldn't tell whether or not Plagg was thinking or simply munching on another piece of cheese. He shrugged before squeezing conditioner into his hands and starting to work it in. It also smelled like strawberries, which led Adrien to strongly suspect that someone had finally noticed the cheese smell that always accompanied him and was trying to give him a not-very-subtle hint that he smelled awful.

"He might be able to possess the same people more than once if they get mad for the same reason," Plagg finally said, surprising Adrien enough that he fumbled the conditioner bottle and nearly dropped it. "So if the same designers and light techs and models and seamstresses and backstage workers are at the other weeks as well..."

"I'll talk to Nathalie about interacting with people for Dad," Adrien sighed. Not that Nathalie could be any better at times, but if he pointed out that he was getting targeted and it was interfering with his activities, she might be willing to help. Suddenly Adrien frowned. "Wait. Seamstresses? He hasn't gotten angry at any seamstresses yet-"

The familiar thud of feet landing on his windowsill shut Adrien up fast. He twisted towards the noise, shoving his sodden bangs out of his face as he peered through the falling water from his shower head. Sure enough, Ladybug had landed on his windowsill, eyes screwed shut as she blindly groped for the towel he had placed in the normal spot before flinging it in Adrien's general direction. This time, he managed to both turn the water off and catch the towel, abet a bit awkwardly. He held the towel in front of himself, waiting for Ladybug to leave so that he could get dressed properly.

Except she didn't.

"The Seamstress is right outside," Ladybug said briskly, opening her eyes as soon as she was certain that Adrien had all of the important bits covered. The color high on her cheeks was the only indication that she was at all uncomfortable. She snatched the towel that Adrien had left out for himself on the counter and wrapped it around him, making Adrien flush at the proximity since he _still wasn't dressed at all what was she even doing_. A second later, he found himself almost immobilized with his arms pinned to his sides by the fabric. Ladybug shoved something down the front of the towel, and then they were flying out of his window.

Adrien couldn't help the squeak that escaped his mouth. He pressed himself closer to Ladybug, hoping that the towel was tight enough that none of the people down below could tell that he wasn't wearing _anything_ underneath.

He _definitely_ had to talk to Nathalie about playing interception for his father. This was embarrassing beyond belief.

"Sorry I didn't show up sooner so you could have more time to get ready," Ladybug said as she deposited Adrien on top of the Great Paris rooftop. For whatever reason, none of the akumas had been bright enough to look there once they found Adrien's room empty.

Or maybe they did. Adrien just made a habit out of transforming and following Ladybug out into the fight as soon as he could, so it was possible that the akumas visited after he visited. He didn't really want to find out.

"It- it's fine!" Adrien stammered after a too-long second. He shifted a bit uncomfortably in his towel. "I- I'm just glad that it was you and n-not the akuma that got me."

That didn't sound weird, did it? He didn't think so.

"And this shouldn't last too much longer," Adrien added, finally finding his tongue. "I mean, this Fashion Week will be done in a couple days and then by the time the next week of shows happens I won't have so many activities that, uh, require showers."

Ladybug nodded furiously. A hint of pink tinted her cheeks. "That's, uh, good. But there's still a few days of this Fashion Week, and if these attacks keep happening..."

Adrien winced as well. He couldn't say that he actually _enjoyed_ Ladybug crashing his showers (constant mortification was _not_ fun and he definitely had played with the idea of wearing his swimsuit- the normal, non-Speedo one- while he showered), but he didn't want to put off showering until _after_ his father was definitely no longer interacting with anyone for the day, especially considering that he wasn't actually positive that his father actually _slept_ when Fashion Week was approaching.

"Maybe you could shower at a friend's house?" Ladybug suggested. "It would be harder for akumas to find you then."

Adrien nodded furiously. Honestly, he should have thought of that. "Yeah! I'll definitely do that. No more showers at home until the akumas have stopped, I promise." He'd probably have to endure some teasing, but it would be worth it if he could avoid these mid-shower interruptions.

Besides, he _did_ have one friend that he knew _wouldn't_ tease him...

"I should go," Ladybug said after a moment. Her eyes flicked down to the towel protecting what was left of his dignity before glancing back up at him, her cheeks even pinker than before. "Stay safe."

She was gone a moment later.

Adrien wasted no time making a beeline to the changing rooms next to the pool, where he knew Mr. Bourgeois kept the pool and changing room lost-and-found. If he was even remotely lucky, there might be a pair of swimsuit trunks that he could fit into, or a t-shirt and pants, or maybe even a complimentary bathrobe he could borrow. It wasn't until Adrien was standing in front of the door that he realized his problem.

He had no hands, and he couldn't wriggle them loose unless he wanted to risk flashing the world.

Luckily, Plagg had managed to trail along after him. The kwami was snickering away, sure, but he could open doors for Adrien.

"It'll cost you," Plagg said as soon as he caught on to what Adrien was thinking. "I don't work for free."

Adrien fixed his kwami with a dry stare. "Open the door and I _won't_ feed you nothing but processed cheese slices for an entire month."

"Rude."

Adrien was very much done with folding to his kwami's demands. "I refuse to be caught on the roof by _anyone_. I'm lucky there aren't any guests up here. _Open the door_."

Plagg stuck out his tongue and phased through the door. It popped open, though Plagg had decided to be spiteful and only open it a couple centimeters. Adrien grumbled under his breath and stuck out his foot, carefully nudging the door open the rest of the way. Once he got inside, he hooked his foot around the door and slammed it shut. He _really_ didn't need anyone seeing the open door and deciding to come and investigate.

The frosted-glass skylights gave off enough light for Adrien to make sure that nobody else was in the room. Unfortunately, it also showed an almost completely empty lost-and-found bin, bare except for the swimsuit trunks fit for a two-year-old.

That...wasn't good.

"I guess I'll just wrap my towel around my waist and transform," Adrien sighed. Yeah, he was _definitely_ not showering at home anymore until Fashion Week was over. He wriggled, trying to loosen the tightly wrapped towel so that he could wrap it around his waist instead.

It didn't budge. Somehow Ladybug had managed to wrap him up so well that the towel was almost impossible to remove.

"Oh, this _cannot_ be happening right now," Adrien muttered as he wriggled some more, then moved closer to the wall so he could try to snag his towel on a doorframe to get it loose enough to get out of. "Plagg, some help here?"

"Plagg is done helping for the day," a muffled voice said from deeper in the room.

Adrien scowled in the direction of the voice- he bet that _Ladybug's_ kwami would actually be helpful in this sort of situation, but _of course_ he would get the grouchy old man of a kwami- before realizing that he couldn't actually see Plagg. Adrien's scowl loosened into a frown as he peered around the dim room, trying to figure out where Plagg might have gone. If the kwami had found clothes for him and hadn't said anything...

It wasn't like Adrien could do anything about it until he got free and got the lights turned on. Without cheese, the only way to find Plagg in a dark room was to turn on the light, which obviously was a teensy bit of a problem with Adrien's hands pinned to his sides...

One more twist of his shoulder against a doorframe, and the towel's fabric snagged. A minute later, Adrien finally wriggled his way free of his terrycloth prison and let his towel hit the floor in a pile. As Adrien picked the towel up and shook it back out, several dark objects fell out and onto the ground. Adrien paused, confused, then wrapped the towel around himself loosely before bending down and picking up the fabric pieces. There was a shirt, shorts, and...a sock?

 _Aha_. That was what Ladybug had shoved down his towel. There weren't any boxers and only the one sock, but it would do. Adrien pulled on the shirt (slightly damp and wrinkled from being in the towel) and wriggled into his jeans, wincing as the rough fabric settled around his waist. Going commando in jeans was possibly the most uncomfortable feeling _ever_.

Then again, maybe he didn't want Ladybug grabbing his boxers for him. He was going to transform in a few minutes anyway, so it wasn't as though he would have to deal with the sensation for very long.

After eyeballing the lone sock for a second, Adrien shoved it in his pocket and started his search for Plagg. Once he flicked the light switch on, it didn't take long for the kwami to come out of hiding and land on Adrien's shoulder.

"Yay, you're decent!" Plagg cheered mockingly. "Now let's go take care of the Seamstress, and I can get back to my cheese."

"The-" Adrien paused as the name finally sunk in. "The Seamstress? Weren't you talking about my dad upsetting a seamstress earlier? Did you know?"

Plagg sniffed and flipped off of Adrien's shoulder to hover in the air. "I don't know what you're talking about. Of course not." He sounded strangely smug.

 _That little..._ "You _can_ sense the akumas, can't you!" Adrien accused, incensed. If he had had even a _little_ more time, he could have been partly dressed by the time Ladybug arrived, both this time and all of the other times, and it would have saved him a _lot_ of embarrassment. "And you didn't bother to warn me!"

Plagg finally sniggered. "But it's funny!"

"What am I to you, a source of entertainment?"

"And a source of cheese," Plagg claimed cheerfully. "Say-"

"Nope," Adrien said immediately. "You just ate. Transform me!"

Once this battle was over, Plagg wasn't getting anything but cheese from a can for a _month_.

* * *

Marinette banged her head against her kitchen table as she listened to the sound of her shower running. When she- well, Ladybug- had suggested that Adrien shower at a friend's house, she was thinking that he would go to Nino's house, since the boys were best friends. Maybe he would go to Alya's house if Nino wasn't around, since Alya and Adrien had been hanging out together for far longer than she and Adrien had been.

She had not been expecting Adrien to show up at her living room door, looking a bit sheepish and smelling like chlorine as his hair stuck out in a thousand directions, still damp from the pool water.

Marinette let him in, of course, because what else could she do?

Adrien had been far too happy to follow her to her family's bathroom and then Marinette had to suffer through teaching Adrien how to work their shower as he peered over her shoulder. Marinette had rushed a little through her explanation so that she could rush back to the safety of the living room to hide while Adrien stripped down and showered.

"It's really not that bad," Tikki sighed, hovering over Marinette as she banged her head against the kitchen counter. "You've been in his bathroom. You've seen him showering, even! So why is this a problem?"

Marinette groaned louder at the reminder, burying her head in her arms. "Don't remind me. It's worse because that's the shower _I_ shower in. Every day. And I didn't take out my shampoo or conditioner or soap or anything oh my _god_ -"

Tikki sighed in exasperation. "Marinette, Adrien won't care. I can assure you that he's probably more focused on if asking to use your shower was weird. He wasn't expecting you to clear your entire bathroom just for him to use it."

A long, muffled, drawn-out wail was all the response Tikki got.

Five minutes later, the sound of the shower cut off. Adrien wandered into the living room three minutes after that, fully dressed and toweling his hair dry. Marinette had managed to pull herself together in that time and perched on the couch, trying to look casual as she paged through a book of fashion history.

"Thank you so much for letting me use your shower," Adrien said as he squeezed out one last bit of water from his hair. He reached into his bag and pulled out a comb. "Ladybug suggested that I not shower at home until Fashion Week finished and akumas stopped attacking my house."

Yes, Marinette knew that. She was cursing Ladybug in her head right now for that particular suggestion.

"I-is there something wrong with the pool showers?" Marinette asked a bit timidly, letting her book lower a little and hoping that her cheeks weren't as red as she thought they were. The question was something she had been wondering for a while, since she had been to a few pool showers herself and while they weren't the nicest showers in the universe (and of course they were nowhere close to Adrien's gorgeous black-and-white tiled shower), they _worked_. She hadn't pegged Adrien as someone who would be particularly snotty about the showers he used, especially if the akumas kept targeting him while he was in the showers at his house. "N-not that I mind sharing my shower! I was just wondering!"

Adrien winced and pushed his bangs straight back out of his face. "Some fangirls found out I was swimming there and tried breaking into the locker rooms. The Gorilla caught them, of course, and they've been banned from the facility permanently, but I can't shower when I'm worried people are going to jump out at me at any moment."

That...was disturbing. Marinette didn't blame Adrien at all for choosing his own shower and the possibility of Ladybug barging in over the possibility of fangirls Adrien didn't know (not that he knew Ladybug that well at all or anything) interrupting his shower.

"I'm also just not used to showering in an open area like they have in the locker room," Adrien admitted. "So even with just the other members on the team there it was a bit awkward for me."

Marinette wasn't sure what to say to that. Her conversation skills, already only just holding on by the tips of her fingers, were faltering at the images that Adrien's words conjured up.

 _No, brain, stop thinking about it!_

An outbreak of screaming cut off all further conversation. Marinette and Adrien turned in unison towards the source of the sounds, and Marinette silently thanked the akuma for an exit to what was fast becoming an awkward situation.

"Oh, shoot," Adrien sighed, picking up his bag and sliding it onto his shoulder. "Another akuma. I should go, I don't want it to disrupt your parents' business when it comes after me."

"Are you _sure_ it's after you?" Marinette asked, even though her inner Ladybug was screaming _what are you doing let him go so you can go transform._ "I mean, there _are_ some akumas that aren't, and wouldn't it be safer for you to be inside than out on the streets?"

"I know it might not be after me, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I'll just call my driver up to get home, so I should be safe." Adrien flashed a ten-megawatt grin at Marinette as he reached for the living room door handle, making her heart flutter. "Thank you so much for letting me use your shower. Would you or your parents mind if I continue using it until this Fashion Week is over? My dad should stop upsetting so many people after that."

"Oh, no, that's- I mean, you're fine! To keep showering here!" Marinette blurted, hating how the color was rising in her face again. She did _not_ have time for another Adrien-in- _her-_ shower-induced meltdown. If Adrien was going to be outside and potentially a target for whatever upset akuma was ravaging the streets, Ladybug needed to be out and in action as soon as possible. "I'm sure my parents would agree. They would want you safe."

"Thank you!" Adrien called over his shoulder as another roar shook the air and he dashed out the door. "Sorry I have to go, see you soon!"

"And I need to get going as well," Marinette said out loud as she closed the door and turned to Tikki, who had just come out of hiding. An akuma attack would be just the thing to get her mind off of the fact that _Adrien Agreste_ had just showered in her house and would be doing it again tomorrow. She could (and probably would) freak out about it later, when Ladybug wasn't needed. But for now, she had a job to do.

" _Tikki! Transform me!"_


End file.
